1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for manufacturing an electronic component, and more particularly, it relates to a method of and an apparatus for applying paste materials to both end portions of a component body thereby forming external terminal electrodes on a chip-type electronic component, for example.
2. Description of the Background Art
FIG. 12 shows a chip-type electronic component 1, which is of interest to the present invention. The electronic component 1 such as a multilayer ceramic capacitor, a multilayer chip inductor or a chip resistor has an appearance shown in FIG. 12. This electronic component 1 comprises a component body 2 and external terminal electrodes 3 and 4 which are formed on both end portions thereof. These external terminal electrodes 3 and 4 are formed by applying conductor paste materials such as Ag--Pd paste materials or Ag paste materials to both end portions of the component body 2 and baking the same. Such an electronic component 1 is of a surface-mountable type.
FIG. 13 shows a step of applying conductor paste materials to end portions of the component body 2 for defining the external terminal electrodes 3 and 4. An applicator 5 of a metal plate, for example, is formed thereon with a film 6 of a conductor paste material in a uniform thickness. Then, an end portion of the component body 2 is located in the paste film 6 and thereafter the component body 2 is separated from the paste film 6, so that the conductor paste material is applied to the end portion of the component body 2. Then, this conductor paste material is dried and thereafter the component body 2 is inverted so that another end thereof is located in the paste film 6 this time. Then, the component body 2 is taken out from the paste film 6, and the conductor paste material which is applied to the other end portion is thereafter dried. Thereafter the conductor paste materials are so fired as to define the external terminal electrodes 3 and 4 respectively.
While FIG. 13 simply illustrates a step of treating a single component body 2, this treatment is generally simultaneously carried out on a plurality of such component bodies 2, which are held by a proper holder.
However, an operation which must be carried out in order to provide the aforementioned external terminal electrodes 3 and 4 is not much efficient. Namely, a step of applying the conductor paste material to one end portion of the component body 2 is carried out independently of a step of applying the conductor paste material to the other end portion, while steps of drying the conductor paste materials are carried out after these steps respectively. Consequently, a relatively large number of steps are required for forming the external terminal electrodes 3 and 4, and hence much time is required in order to obtain a single electronic component 1.
In the as-obtained electronic component 1, it is desirable that each of the external terminal electrodes 3 and 4 has a cross-directional dimension 7 within a constant range. If the holder holding a plurality of component bodies 2 and the applicator 5 are in inferior parallelism or the component bodies 2 are not normally but inclinedly held by the holder, for example, however, parts of the electronic components 1 may be exposed to inconvenience such as that shown in FIG. 14. Referring to FIG. 14, a cross-directional dimension 7a of the external terminal electrode 4, for example, is below a standard range. Similarly, the cross-directional dimension of the external terminal electrode 3 and/or 4 may exceed the standard range.